We're in another presidential election season. That means we'll be getting a lot of flattery from a lot of politicians trying to get our vote. We'll hear about how we're such hard workers who deserve better leaders, how the nation's problems are so much the fault of some small minority of people rather than the average person, etc. Businesses and advertisers flatter us in an attempt to get our money, and politicians flatter us in an attempt to get our vote. And all of that is accompanied by a lot of talk about self-esteem, not letting anybody judge you, not letting anybody put you down, following your heart, etc. The fact that people are aware that they live in that sort of atmosphere of flattery and realize how misleading it is doesn't mean that it doesn't adversely affect them. You don't have to buy all of it in order to buy some of it. "Flattery is like perfume. Sniff it. Don't swallow it." A few facts to keep in mind as you take in all of the flattery of the presidential election season:
- The Pew Research Center regularly asks people where they find the most meaning in life. The answers of the large majority of people, including most Evangelicals, are consistently secular. Nobody is forcing people to show so much disregard for God when they're asked these questions. They choose to do it.
- The Department of Labor studies how Americans use their time each year. They've consistently found that not much time is spent on religious activities. For example, the average American spends roughly five hours a day on what the Department of Labor calls leisure and sports and roughly five minutes a day on what's classified as religious and spiritual activities. Again, people are choosing to live that way. It's primarily their fault, not the fault of academia, the media, Hollywood, etc.
- Look at what's most popular in contexts like television, books, and the internet. For example, some music videos get YouTube views in the billions. They're secular, trivial, and sometimes sinful songs, of course. Then there are all of the animal videos, humor videos, and such that get many millions of views, while content that's far better gets much less of an audience. Again, who's primarily responsible for people's choices in these contexts?
- A lot of organizations poll people on their knowledge of matters like the contents of the Bible, our system of government, and the history of our nation. The results are frequently awful. Sometimes there will be an effort to shift the blame, perhaps to our public education system, for example. But if you can't name the three branches of government or can't name a single Supreme Court justice, for example, how is that your high school history teacher's fault? What is he supposed to do? Call you up every few years after high school and make sure you know who's currently on the Supreme Court? No, if you haven't been keeping up with that, don't blame your high school teacher. It's not his responsibility. Whatever blame sources like high school teachers deserve in this sort of context, it's much less than the blame the average person deserves.
- Do you really think something like a national debt of tens of trillions of dollars or the widespread acceptance of same-sex marriage is just the fault of some small minority of the population? How do you think voters (and others) would react if Congress would significantly reduce government spending or bring legal recognition of same-sex marriage to an end? Our leaders refuse to do what they should do largely because they know that the people they're leading would punish them if they did the right thing.
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